Pneumatic vehicle tires with a self-sealing sealant are sufficiently well known to a person skilled in the art. The sealant is arranged in the interior of the tire, on the inner surface in projection of the tread. The sealant has such a viscosity and tackiness that, after being introduced into the finished tire, it adheres fixed-in-place to it. In the case of a puncture of the tread, with the item that causes the puncture expelled, the sealant flows into the channel left behind and seals it off in an airtight manner.
“Highly viscous” should be understood here as meaning a sealant of which the viscosity is more than 10 Pa·s.
It is problematic however that, for production-related reasons, the fully vulcanized tire has a so-called adhesion reducer on its inner surface. This adhesion reducer has been transferred to the inner surface of the tire during the vulcanization process from the inner bladder, which is provided with an adhesion reducer over its entire surface.
Since the sealant adheres poorly to the adhesion reducer, it is usual to remove the adhesion reducer completely from the inner surface of the tire by cleaning methods. This cleaning has the effect that the sealant adheres well to the inner surface of the tire. However, this good adherence has the simultaneous effect that the flowability of the sealant is reduced, which can have disadvantageous consequences for the sealing characteristics. In order to ensure reliable sealing, the sealing layer must be applied relatively thickly, to approximately 7 mm.